(JTA) – An MP for Britain’s Labour party apologized for claiming that a group of ex-colleagues who quit the party in protest over anti-Semitism may be backed by Israel.

Ruth George, a member of the House of Commons, the British parliament’s lower house, had said that it was “possible” that the seven lawmakers who left the party on Monday were being supported by the State of Israel. [Read more…]

(JTA) – In a brief confidential conference call with Jewish organizations, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar apologized for any hurt caused by her tweets suggesting that AIPAC pays politicians to support Israel.

“Let me reiterate my sincere apology for any actual hurt my words have caused,” Omar, a freshman Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, said on Tuesday afternoon, according to someone present on the call. “I know there are a lot of people who in the last weeks have expressed support in trying to say this isn’t anti-Semitic or this shouldn’t be looked at in that way.” [Read more…]

Protesters took to the streets in some 70 marches only hours after nearly 100 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in the eastern French village of Quatzenheim were discovered vandalized with swastikas. Some protesters held posters saying “That’s Enough.” [Read more…]

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar has been accused of using anti-Semitic tropes. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

(JTA) – Dear JTA,

I am an elected official in a large democracy in the Western hemisphere. A lot of my colleagues have gotten into trouble recently for using anti-Semitic “tropes.” I know what anti-Semitism is, but am less sure how that differs from a “trope.” Any guidance so I don’t inadvertently say something offensive?

Yours,

Distinguished Colleague

Dear D.C.,

I understand your confusion. This has been the era of the anti-Semitic “trope,” with the word popping up in hundreds of news stories since the 2016 campaign. In short, tropes are phrases or images that evoke classic anti-Semitic ideas rather than state them explicitly. It’s a long list: the dual loyalty trope, the blood libel, the clannishness charge, the global conspiracy motif and the control-the-media mantras (to name a few). [Read more…]

“The most beautiful sight that I could lay eyes on [was] when I saw, the day after Trump was elected, women from all over the world were standing in solidarity, and a black woman is the initiator of it,” said Farrakhan, referring to Tamika Mallory, a leader of the Women’s March who has lionized Farrakhan and refused to condemn his pervasive anti-Semitism. [Read more…]

Isaac Herzog, chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, speaks at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, Oct. 23, 2018 in Tel Aviv. He said the Israeli and North American Jewish communities need to talk, echoing the theme of the General Assembly. (Courtesy of JFNA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Social media are spreading anti-Semitism, Jewish Agency chief Isaac Herzog told American Jewish leaders meeting here, and are “a hotbed of the lunatics of the world.”

“The real dirt of the world comes up from the killing fields of social media,” he told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at its annual gathering on Monday. [Read more…]

Some of the 80 gravestones vandalized in a Jewish cemetery in the eastern French village of Quatzenheim, Feb. 19, 2019. (Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) – About 80 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in France were discovered vandalized with swastikas hours before the start of marches Tuesday against the recent rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the country.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the cemetery in the eastern French village of Quatzenheim, near the border with Germany, on Tuesday afternoon and promised that his government would take action. [Read more…]

Swastikas were painted on images of Simone Veil, a former Jewish lawmaker, on the mailboxes of a Paris town hall. (Screenshot from Le Parisien)

(JTA) – Following a wave of anti-Semitic incidents in France, 14 political parties endorsed a protest rally that is being organized by local Jews against this form of hatred.

The parties include President Emmanuel Macron’s “La République En Marche!” as well as the Socialist Party and the Republicans. Three Green parties also signed on as well as one far-left party. The parties and the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities called on French citizens to rally Tuesday in Paris and in several other French cities in demonstrations under the banner “No to anti-Semitism.” [Read more…]

(JTA) – Luciana Berger, a British-Jewish lawmaker, has quit the Labour Party over its anti-Semitism problem, along with six other members of the House of Commons.

Berger, who frequently has spoken out about anti-Semitic hate speech directed at her and other Jews by Labour members, and the others announced their resignation on Monday, dealing a major blow to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters. [Read more…]

(JTA) – Anti-Semitic crimes rose by 10 per cent in Germany in 2018, with a 60 per cent increase in violent crimes, spurring the main Jewish umbrella group there to call for a “stronger commitment” from police and politicians.

The Central Council of Jews was reacting to a report from the German parliament, the Bundestag, released to the Tagesspiegel newspaper and reported Wednesday. [Read more…]